The invention relates to wideband radars having an electronic beam scanning capability.
In order to achieve wide instantaneous bandwidth (signal bandwidth), conventional phased arrays use time delay phase shifters (time delay compensation) at each radiating element or subarray level. For a given beam scan angle each time delay phase shifter is adjusted so that the radiated signals from the elements all arrive at the same time to form a plane wavefront in the direction of the beam scan angle. Due to the long delay lines required for large arrays, the time delay phase shifters are bulky, lossy and costly.
An object of this invention is to provide an ultra wideband radar with an electronic beam scanning capability so that it can rapidly search over a large volume of space for potential energy threats.